Pursuant to 35 USC 120, the priority of DE 101 36 027.4 filed 25 Jul. 2001 is claimed.
Flat articles that are packaged aseptically, such as filter sheets or bandaging materials, are often used in the fields of microbiology, pharmacology and medicine. In order to make these articles available quickly and at any time in adequate quantities, the use of dispensers is known. Such packaged articles are generally enclosed in tube-shaped, sterile protective sleeves in the form of two foil strips. These protective sleeves can be spirally wound in a magazine of the dispenser or folded therein accordion style. Of primary importance during dispensation of such aseptic articles is the prevention of secondary contamination, caused, for example, by a hand touching the protective packaging which in turn comes into contact with the aseptically packaged item. To avoid such secondary contamination, the foil strips of the protective sleeve are pulled apart during an advance of the tube-shaped sleeve, for instance with a cutting, splitting or grasping assembly, so that the article is not exposed until it is ready for use, and then may be directly removed from the sterile packaging in a sterile manner, e.g., with forceps.
A major drawback of such a dispenser design is that intermediate reloading of the dispenser at any time is not possible because the entire rolled or folded sleeve must first be fully dispensed before the next one can be inserted. When reloading is possible, an entire sleeve containing fresh aseptic items must be introduced into the magazine of the dispenser and threaded through its advancing mechanism, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. This is particularly disadvantageous when the supply available in the dispenser is used up at an inopportune moment, particularly when performing operations requiring performance without interruption.
A specific example of such a prior art dispenser is that disclosed in DE 298 05 100 U1, which includes means for opening a sleeve of protective packaging containing multiple membrane filters consisting of two longitudinal strips laminated together along their longitudinal edges. The two strips are peeled apart by winding them around each of two synchronized rolls driven in opposite directions. The synchronized rolls are coated with a rubber coating, which imparts the frictional force between the foils and the rubber coating necessary to separate the two foils of the sleeve. The packaging for the membrane filters is thus peeled away by the operation of the rolls in such a way that individual filters can be removed without having to touch either the protective packaging or the membrane filters by hand. However, reloading such a dispenser is relatively time-consuming because one end of the sleeve must be threaded through a guide and to an advancing mechanism and this can occur only when all the membrane filters in a rolled-up sleeve have been dispensed. In other words, the dispenser""s magazine must first be fully emptied before it can be refilled.
Primary objects of the present invention are therefore (1) to improve such dispensers so as to enable them to be reloaded with minimal time expenditure, and (2) to impart flexibility with respect to the timing of reloading.
These objects are achieved by the provision of a dispensing apparatus having a magazine ejector for holding a multiplicity of single packaged items in protective packaging for the dispensation of the single packaged items, and a separating assembly for the separation of the protective packaging from each packaged item. The packaging layers of a single packaged item are separated during dispensation by the separating assembly of the dispenser, so that an aseptic item such as a membrane filter that has been exposed can be removed without coming into contact with non-sterile components, thereby preventing secondary contamination.
Because the dispenser can dispense single packaged items from a magazine, the dispenser""s magazine can be loaded with stacks of single packaged items and reloaded in a simple manner and at virtually any time during operation of the dispensing apparatus, meaning processing operations in progress will not be delayed. Troublesome and time-consuming threading of a packaging sleeve into an advancing mechanism is thus avoided. Reloading is possible even when the stack of packaged items in the magazine is not yet fully used up. Operation of the dispenser is therefore very flexible, which makes its use in all applications more efficient.